Here's an excerpt from my talk with Douglas. Some of this has been edited only for length.

Q: What exactly is a sequester and where do we get the term?

A: "The dictionary definition is to keep separate, right? Like you sequester a jury. The whole gambit (in Washington D.C.) was there was supposed to be this grand bargain between Republicans and Democrats to raise the debt ceiling."

(He's referring to the Budget Control Act, which passed in Aug. 2011. It called for a congressional supercommittee to find $1.2 trillion in cuts by Nov. 23, 2011.)

"When the bargain couldn't be reached, now we're rolling out these spending cuts that were supposed to be kept separate, and that's what's getting people upset."

(Some projections put the cuts up to 1.2 trillion. They are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in 2021.)Q: Has anything of this magnitude happened before?

A: "Not that I'm aware of. Because we've never hit a debt level that's really brought this level of concern. Especially with the rapid rise of the debt load.

Q: What exactly do you mean?

A: "They call it the debt-to-GDP ratio. It's not really clear what the danger zone is. It depends on a lot of stuff. ... I think people get pretty uncomfortable when you hit debt that's equal to 80 percent or higher of the GDP. We're not there yet, but we're getting close (According to this report, debt is projected to grow from 72 percent of GDP in 2012 to 87 percent in 2022).

"If you just do the projections out, the U.S. fiscal situation is just completely unsustainable if you look at projected spending vs. projected revenues."

Q: If the cuts do kick in, what impact would we see here? What would change for people in our area?

A: "It's always hard to speculate. ... People say they might cut from the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) you might see higher lines at the airports."

Q: So what could happen before Friday to avoid this?

A: "Some sort of deal gets cut. They could pass a law right now that says they're just going to cancel the cuts. But everybody wants something."

Q: So they're using it as a bargaining chip?

A: "Right."

Q: What do you think is going to happen?

A: "It's hard to forecast the economy. I think it's harder to forecast politics. I think the way these things go, there's a lot of posturing until the last second, then at the the last second a deal's cut."erQ: So what would actually make a long-term impact at lowering the national debt?

A: "You have to reign in entitlement spending, especially Medicare spending. That's just politically very difficult to do."

Q: One more time, will these sequester cuts have a very noticible impact on the average Genesee County taxpayer?

A: "I would say probably not. I would say the biggest thing you would notice is if you had to fly somewhere and they really were real about having to furlough some TSA agents. ... If that's the case you're going to have to wait longer in airport lines. ... The typical guy doing his thing in Flint, I don't think he's really going to notice."